Mauritania frees senior militant

A senior Malian Islamist militant has been freed from jail in Mauritania, according to a group investigating his alleged involvement in crimes by Islamist rebels during their occupation of northern Mali.

Sidi Mohamed Ould Mohamed Ould Bouamama, better known as Sanda Ould Bouamama, is a former spokesperson for Ansar Dine, an al-Qaeda-linked group that joined with other Islamist fighters to seize Mali’s desert north in 2012.